5 Michael Corner and The Lady of The Lake
by ivoryglobe2
Summary: Short stories following real time in the Potterverse, following the career of Michael Corner. 5. Michael's friends from Beauxbatons arrive and he is one of the students put in charge of looking after them. He takes Michelle to the Yule Ball, but she has other ideas ...


Michael Corner and The Lady of The Lake

David McKenzie and Toni Wilshire were already sitting in The Proflet's study when I arrived. He was sitting at his special desk absent mindedly scratching his temple with a quill, with the result that he looked as though he had been gored by a werewolf. They were sitting on normal sized chairs so they towered over him even more than usual.

'Ah, Michael, come along in,' he said. 'I take it you were at the feast last night? The question that has been debated long and hard among my colleagues is how we occupy our guests from when they arrive until the conclusion of the Tournament when they leave. One of each party will be pretty fully occupied in preparations for the Tournament tasks but the rest of them will be at something of a loose end.'

We all nodded sagely, wondering where this was leading.

'Now, thanks to Michael,' he went on, 'we have been given, with Hufflepuff, the task of entertaining the Beauxbatons students. I think, frankly, that we have the easier task than the other houses as Beauxbatons is more like Hogwarts than is Durmstrang. Incidentally, Madame Maxime sends her regards,' he told me. 'You must tell me what you did, that night. She seemed very impressed.'

'I, er, cloaked some of their students when some of those hooded people were threatening to hunt them,' I said.

'What were you using?'

'_Ennuiage_,' I said.

'Good heavens, where on earth did you learn that,' he said. 'I haven't taught it for years. We prefer Disillusionment.'

'They taught it to me,' I said. 'We were chatting and they said it was one of the last spells in French.'

'It is indeed,' he said. 'And you used it to cloak a whole party, the first time you used it?'

'I guess so,' I said.

'Then I'm not surprised she was impressed,' he said. 'Now the party coming over will all be older than you, they will be in David and Toni's years, but I am including you in this for two reasons. The first is that you have met some of them, though I don't know who will be coming over. The second is that, frankly, Madame Maxime asked me to. It will be extra work for all of you, but it will be greatly appreciated.'

'Do any of these dudes speak English?' asked David as we walked down the corridor after the meeting. 'I mean, I don't speak a word of French beyond 'Bonjour''

'Yeah, they speak it really well,' I said. 'Though they tend to forget it when they're stressed. Apparently there aren't any French spell books. They were all burned in the Revolution, so they have to learn English. And Latin.'

'I didn't know they'd had a Revolution,' said Toni.

'Well. It was a long time ago,' I said.

So my claim to fame rested on the fact that I had actually met some of these strange monsters that were coming to visit. Every time, the question was: 'What are they like?' and every time the answer was 'Just like us', but that didn't satisfy everyone.

'I mean, do they just, sort of, like, have wands?' asked McClaggen, who was one of the Griff 'ambassadors' because he spoke some French.

'Of course they do,' I said. 'They're just like us.'

'But, I mean, do they, sort of, use them the same as we do? Do they have the same spells?'

'As far as I know,' I said. 'There aren't that many French spells, as I told you.'

He was absolutely convinced that they were some sort of different species.

My interest was more in who would be coming. Would any of the kids I had met be in the party? Michelle and I had exchanged kisses when we parted, but they had been in the French style, one on each cheek, under the watchful eye of Madame Maxime. Nevertheless, I did want to see her again. The Quidditch was fun and interesting and all that, but the thing that set the experience apart for me – made it even more unique, if you like, was being with the Beauxbatons party.

I knew what to expect of their entrance, because I had been told about _Le Potiron_, the Pumpkin. All the same, it was impressive as it swept out of the sky and bounced across the Great Lawn. I wondered what those bounces felt like inside.

And there was Madame Maxime at the head of the line of students. And there were Michelle and Florent, shivering in the evening air. I began to think that being an ambassador might turn out to be quite fun, if I could keep away from Cormac McClaggen.

The Beauxbatons students marched in double file, boys and girls, up to the castle but the rest of us were supposed to wait for the Durmstrang arrival. I decided that it was too cold to hang around outside and that I should go back to the (nice warm) castle to do my ambassadorial duty.

The French party was standing in the Entrance Hall as close to the Great Fire as they could get without actually getting burned.

Michelle ran over to me as I came through the doors and gave me a big hug and kiss, French style, on both cheeks. Madame Maxime was still watching.

''Ow are you?' she said. 'It is so cold,' she went on before I could answer. 'We did not know it would be so cold. Come and meet us,' and she dragged me over to where the rest were standing.

Madame Maxime shook me by the hand in a formal English way and greeted me graciously as ever. So did the boys as we were introduced but the girls kissed me on both cheeks. This ambassadorial business was better than I thought.

'How was the flight?' I asked.

'It was good,' said Michelle.

'It was cold,' said a tall girl who was still wrapped up in her scarf, and was standing closest to the fire.

'It was fine,' Michelle whispered loudly. 'Do not listen to Fleur, she just wanted to look out of the window.'

This Fleur looked cross, and was about to reply, but at that moment the doors banged open and a bunch of people in heavy cloaks came in, the Durmstrang lot, followed by all the rest of Hogwarts in a chattering mass.

Dumbledore swept Madame Maxime up and whisked her away to to the Receiving Room. We hadn't been told what to do so I invited the Beauxbatons party to come and sit at the Ravenclaw table. It seemed polite and it turned out that it was the right thing to do. It earned me the approval from The Proflet, and from the rest of the house because the Beauxbatons crowd were very good looking. I had been worried that it would be a squash but the table simply adjusted itself for the extra numbers. The Durmstrang people milled around a bit before joining the Slytherin table, which made them instantly unpopular with everyone else in the school. The next day there were even a few idiots who threw Dungbombs at them, which most of them countered by forming bubbles around their heads.

'That's cool,' I said to Michelle. 'I wonder how they do that.'

'Are you not taught it?' she said in surprise. It is the Le Tête Globulaire, I suppose you would say 'Bubble Head.' It is _Globocapitulus_, like this,' and she drew a circle around her head with her wand to form the strange transparent bubble.

I tried it, and achieved quite a respectable bubble of my own. 'My guess is that it's taught at a later Year at Hogwarts,' I said. 'Useful, though.'

'It is useful when 'andling dead things,' she said. 'Or something malodorous.'

Well, everyone knows what happened at the Feast that evening. What is generally not recorded is that I got the blame, from Beauxbatons at least.

''Ow did 'ee do zat?' protested Therese, one of the senior students who had thought she was in with a serious chance. 'We should 'ave two champions too.'

'I don't know,' I said. 'No, honestly. I have no idea. I didn't go near the Cup so I didn't see anything.'

'But you know zis 'Arry Potter,' she said. 'Michelle told me.'

'I know him, sure,' I said. 'But I don't know him well. He's not in Ravenclaw.'

I looked enquiringly at Michelle, who shrugged. I hadn't realised that Harry was so famous even in France.

There was quite a heated discussion in French, which I couldn't follow at all, but I got the impression that their advice to each other was to leave the battle to Madame Maxime. Toni and I were trying to calm things down but David sat there like a sunned herring. In fairness, so did the whole of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff but the Slytherins were winding up the Durmstrang group and there was nearly a riot. Most of the staff were in the Receiving Room and it wasn't until Hagrid stomped over to the Slytherin table and loomed over them and threatened to take five hundred points off Slytherin that they simmered down.

Once people got used to the idea, or got used to fact that they couldn't do anything about it, they accepted the situation. There was a certain amount of anti-Potter feeling but it was all stoked by Snakeo. It died down once pretty quickly and disappeared amongst the Hogwarts students after the First Task and they realised that Potter was a real contender. On the other hand it increased among the visitors (and the Slytherins) for exactly the same reason. Once again I was caught in the crossfire. I was thought to be a friend of Potter's, and I was also thought to be an item with Michelle, which would have been good if it had been true.

But we did go as partners to the Yule Ball. Michelle looked like a Spring Maiden in yellow and green. I went safe in deep blue robes that Mum had spent a fortune on, assuming that I had more or less stopped growing. We sat together but she seemed distant and didn't join in with the conversation that mostly centred on Davis's chance with Fleur Delacourt. Fleur wasn't popular among the Beauxbatons group. Apparently she had a string of disappointed admirers in France.

'Which is stupeed,' said Michelle. 'Everyone knows she is part Veela. She tells everyone, and yet they are besotted.'

'I wonder whether Malfoy is really part Veela,' I said.

''Ee is not very beautiful,' she said, but she kept on looking over at the Slytherin table.

Bastard. I was not going to be cut out by Snakeo.

We had a nice smoochy dance, and then a more energetic one, and everything seemed fine until we sat down again for a rest. Robes are hot for dancing in and I went over to the bar for a couple of butterbeers. There was a big queue at the bar and when I got back she had vanished. Florent was 'deep in conversation' with whichever of the Patils Potter had been dancing with but Michelle was nowhere to be seen.

I looked over at the Slytherin table but she wasn't there and Malfoy was holding court, surrounded by his cronies. She didn't seem to be anywhere and I started to get a tiny bit worried. Hogwarts is a great place, but it takes a lot of getting used to. There are traps and hidden dangers that we take for granted and know how to avoid. I was also a bit annoyed, but if I was looking for her I had no idea where to start.

It was too cold for them to be out in the gardens, and I could see Snape and Karkaroff patrolling there. I thought of all the dark corners where she could be hiding but I also thought about what I might find, who she might be hiding with. Taking a deep breath I set off for the Ravenclaw Common Room as a place to start and work out from there. I wondered whether I could ask Muriel if she had seen her, but I couldn't think how to do it. I just found myself wandering aimlessly while the beat of the Weird Sisters shook the castle, and the only person I met in a dark corner was Ginny Weasley.

'What?' I said.

'Shhh,' she hissed. 'I'm hiding from Neville.'

'What's wrong with Neville?' I said. I couldn't imagine Longbottom as an amorous predator.

'There's nothing wrong with him,' she said. 'He's just hopeless at dancing.'

'But he's hopeless at everything,' I said and held my hands up as she bristled defensively. 'That's just what I heard,' I said. Ginny's temper was legendary.

'He is not hopeless,' she said when she'd calmed down a bit. 'Snape bullies him, and McGonagall doesn't help. He's actually very powerful at some things. But he cannot dance.'

'You must have known that,' I said. 'Why did you come with him?'

'It's the only way I could get to the Ball,' she said. 'Otherwise I'd have been the only person home for Yule, apart from my grown-up brothers, and I didn't fancy it.'

'Doesn't sound much fun,' I agreed.

'Don't get me wrong,' she said. 'I love my family but they'd all be so adult and boring. Why are you wandering around? Shouldn't you be at the Ball?'

'I'm a bit worried about Michelle,' I said. 'She vanished from the Hall and I was worried about her falling into one of the traps, or getting on the wrong side of Peeves, or something.'

'Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about her,' said Ginny. 'She's probably somewhere cosy with that von Bulow bloke.'

'Who?' I said, feeling the ground shifting under my feet.

'Franz von Bulow? One of the Durmstrangers.'

'I … I didn't know,' I said.

She looked at me sympathetically. 'Did you like her?' she said.

'Well, yes. I like her,' I said. 'She's a friend. That's all.'

'That's all,' she agreed.

'Well,' I said. 'Shall we go back to the ball, then?'

'I can't,' she said. 'If Neville sees me with you it'll shatter his confidence. He was on a real high and I don't want to hurt him.'

I wondered what sort of high he'd be on once he realised he had mislaid his partner, but I needn't have worried. I saw him pirouetting his way up the stairs (and nearly falling down them) as I went back to the Hall.

Things were winding down and we were back on the smooch music. There was still no sign of Michelle and I felt empty and stupid. Not that I felt that way about her, of course, but I still felt a fool. And somewhat bitter towards Durmstrang in general.

The Midnight Gong sounded and the partygoers started to drift off to their houses. The Durmstrang students assembled and marched off to their ship. There was shouting outside but it was only the students casting off and anchoring out in the Lake. The Beauxbatons students were still hanging around and I realised that they were waiting for people. Madame Maxime noticed me and beckoned me over.

'Ah, Michael,' she boomed. 'Where is your friend Michelle?'

'I haven't seen her for a little while,' I said, unwilling to snitch on her. 'We had a couple of dances and she went off on her own. Shall I check our Common Room?'

She looked at her watch, which was the size of an alarm clock. 'We cannot delay more. If she is in your Common Room would you be so kind as to escort her back to our carriage?'

'Sure,' I said. 'I'll keep an eye out for her.' I knew she wouldn't still be with von Bulow because I had seen him leaving in the Durmstrang party.

The Beauxbatons students flowed her out, chatting amongst themselves, with Fleur complaining about how dull it had been. I wondered whether to tell Davis, when Ginny came running down the stairs.

'Mike!' she called quietly but urgently. 'It's your friend.'

'What's happened?' I said. 'Where is she?'

'Nothing's happened.' She said. 'Yet. But she's out on the Lake.'

I ran up the stairs after her and found a window that overlooked the Lake and sure enough, there was someone on the Lake in a little boat. It looked like one of the rowing boats that the first years came over in before the Sorting. She was heading for the Durmstrang ship but she had lost an oar and was going round in circles.

Then, as we watched, a long tentacle rose out of the water and casually flipped the boat right over.

'No!' Ginny shrieked.

I charged down the stairway and across the Entrance Hall just as Filtch was closing the door. I squeezed out of the gap, ignoring his cries of outrage and left Ginny to make the explanations, and get help. I could swim, in fact I'm a pretty good swimmer, but the Lake was deep, and cold, and the Squid was on the loose.

Michelle, I assumed it was Michelle, bobbed to the surface before sinking again. I ripped off my robes because they would not have been great for swimming in. I conjured the biggest Bubble Head I could muster and, trying not to think about how cold it would be, dived into the Lake.

The thing about bubbles is that they float. It was like snorkelling, swimming along as fast as I could, being able to see through the water but not able to go down. I could see Michelle's head bobbing up to the surface occasionally, so she was still hanging in, and every time she resurfaced I swam faster, wondering how long she could last.

I reached the boat and peered down, generating light from my wand as I hung on to the side. Michelle was still struggling, but it looked as though the Squid was playing with her like a cat with a mouse, batting her back and forth between tentacles as she tried to get up for air then hauling her back down again.

I cast _Plumberico_ on to my shoes, to make them heavy enough to sink, but the bubble around my head almost pulled it off my shoulders. I gritted my teeth and, as soon as I reached her, grabbed her, pulled her head into the bubble with me so she could breathe and reversed the spell. We popped to the surface. The Squid grabbed at my ankles so a cast _Relsashio_ at it and bundled Michelle into the boat.

We sat there, gasping and shivering, and I wondered what to do next, but the boat started moving of its own accord. Looking down over the stern I saw the pale outline of a girl in black robes, pushing the boat towards the boathouse under the castle. She pushed us against the wharf and Michelle climbed out into the waiting arms of Poppy Pompom.

The ghost girl was swimming back down the tunnel. I stuck my head, still in its bubble, under the water again. 'Thank you for rescuing us from the monster,' I called after her.

She turned and looked at me in complete astonishment. She was ghostly pale and she had the ghosts of braces on her teeth, but her hair was dry. 'From who?' she said.

'From the monster who was attacking her.'

'She wasn't attacking,' said the ghost girl. 'She could hear the music. She just wanted someone to dance with.


End file.
